Institutional Change in Russia: The Case of Urban Land Rights

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Date
2015-04-24
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Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
Abstract Institutional Change in Russia: The Case of Urban Land Rights, 1990-2013 Why, when, and how do institutions change? The dissertation contributes to theory-building on these questions by examining variation in urban land rights in Russia after seven decades of state ownership. Urban land privatization is taken as a proxy for institutional change. Using inductive methods to identify patterns of urban land privatization, three cities are selected to represent institutional change that is either rapid (Kazan), incremental (St. Petersburg), or in stasis (Moscow). Case studies test the hypothesis that the motivation for institutional change will be a function of the revenue-maximizing incentives of political authorities. Consistent with Levi’s (1988) theory of predatory rule, at a given time, political authorities will opt for the highest-yielding and most feasible revenue sources that strengthen their hold on power and security in office. Why and when land was privatized correlated with these factors in the case study cities. How institutions change is hypothesized to vary according to consistency in policy actions by political authorities and the bureaucracy (explanatory variables), with public engagement in decision-making as an intervening variable. The variables are compared in the three case study cities in the 1990s and 2000s, using a land governance model to simplify the change process. Based on qualitative and quantitative indicators, the pace of land privatization (dependent variable) was found to be rapid only when political authorities, the bureaucracy and society were aligned on policy actions. Such alignment was rare. In all case study cities, administrative barriers to privatization declined sharply following the transformation of the land rights registration agency into a rule-bound bureaucracy, and public engagement contributed to institutional change.
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Keywords
Russia, institutions, institutional change, urban land, property rights, land privatization, land administration
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